


Sunrises

by findafight



Category: Runaways (Comics), Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, BETA READ BY RENATA SHES A STAR, Canon-Typical Violence, Captain America Chase Stein, Dehumanization, Established Relationship, F/M, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Guns, Hurt/Comfort, Hydra, Please keep in mind this is a ws au and things can get angsty with trust (and they will), Queer Themes, Runaways Big Bang 2019, Winter Soldier AU, captain america: the winter soldier fusion, hand holding, mentions of torture, mostly based on runaways comics but some details form the tv show that i liked are also used
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:47:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21821692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/findafight/pseuds/findafight
Summary: Gertrude Yorkes falls to her presumed death during a mission to capture Armin Zola from a train through the Alps in February, 1945.Chase Stein wakes up in 2012 after plunging into the arctic with a plane full of bombs seventy years before.In 2013 the Winter Soldier’s (and her Pet’s) next mission is to kill Captain America. She isn't sure if she can do it.
Relationships: Chase Stein/Gertrude Yorkes, Karolina Dean & Chase Stein, Molly Hayes | Molly Hernandez & Chase Stein
Comments: 5
Kudos: 46
Collections: Runaways Big Bang 2019





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *insert mushu "I LIVE" gif here* Long time no write! Please enjoy my work for the runaways big bang 2019 event. it's been a labour of love, sweat, and tears. I'll be updating every Monday and possibly Fridays (as the fic is basically finished so like. don't worry about a drought (sorry to my other fics). I'm trying to figure out how to pace the chapter cuts so theyre similar lengths and still have solid arcs ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯.  
> This fic will likely be part of a series in this au as well! so there's that to look forward to. please also yell about this au or runaways in general on tumblr! (seriously I have so many plans for this au please talk to me about it pleaseplease the other runaways are in it and I'm so excited about it) my tumblr is also findafight but I'm having trouble linking it.  
> some knowledge of CA:WS is probably needed but I'm gonna say if you know the general plot of the movie you should be fine.  
> Anyways, here's my winter soldier Gert au

Chase is well aware Gert would chew him out if she knew he was moping so much after waking up in the future. However, seeing as it is more along the lines of  _ grieving, _ and her (well, her  _ absence _ ) being the main cause of it, Chase decides he is allowed to wallow. Just a bit. 

And really, what was the point of waking up in the future if your best friend wasn’t there to see it too? Yeah, the cars were fancy and the food was better, people had some better views about other people (though shockingly less than he’d have expected), but it’s still...empty, without Gert. And Chase hasn’t ever really known what to do about emptiness.

He fills time with Nico and Alex, tinkering away in a lab twice the size of Gert’s parent’s house and probably four times as expensive, and trying not to think about how much he misses her. Gert would have gotten a kick out of talking to Xavin, he’s sure (they are a god after all. Or at least, has the title of one), and would have loved the way everyone has an entire world of knowledge in their pockets. Chase himself is impressed (how could he not be?) but still has hollowness ringing in him without someone to share the wonder at the mundanity of it all with. 

So, yes, Gert would be mad at him for  _ moping, _ however, she is not here and, right now, neither are any of his future friends to distract him. Really, it’s been almost a year since he woke up and Chase believes he is justified in his grief-moping. Mostly he limits it now to when he’s alone and gets overwhelmed by the world. It’s not like he’s slacking off on being Captain America and not punching invading aliens. He just does it on his off-hours.

Currently, he doesn’t even have the comfort of being somewhere familiar, he’s across the country in D.C. for some political Avengers meeting or something. Molly is the one who they actually want to speak to, but when he does get summoned it’s to look like he actually works with SHIELD regularly and not just when there’s a world-threatening disaster imminent. Chase just wants to forget about bureaucracy and go home. (He knows where that is, he just isn’t sure  _ when _ .)

\-----

It takes two days of doing nothing in D.C. for Chase to get antsy enough to leave the SHIELD accommodation he and Molly are sharing and go for a run. He wakes earlier than he ever did in the '30s, puts on shorts as he eats a protein bar, and goes out into the pre-dawn.

After he sprints around the reflecting pool enough to tire even his enhanced muscles, he sits on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and watches the sunrise. Someone sits down next to him and sighs, drawing his attention from the dawn.

Chase blinks at the pretty blonde sitting next to him, who grins. “Nice sunrise, huh?”

“Yeah, peaceful too. You out running this morning, or was I the only one stupid enough to try it?”

This earns a laugh and a shake of the head, “Nah, I like a walk and a sunrise, not whatever the hell you were doing.” it is punctuated by a lazy wave towards the lake. Chase snorts through his nose, the blonde grins again. “Karolina. Pronouns are she/Her” 

He smiles and shakes her hand as he says “Chase, he/him. Though, you may have already guessed my name.” Gert would have loved the tendency for some people to supply their pronouns. Would have loved the rebellion against assumptions and embrasure of nonconformity. Would have loved the freedom it allows people now that many of their friends in the thirties didn’t even  _ dream _ of having.

“Yeah, I gotta say, running as fast as you were... wasn’t exactly subtle.”

Chase nods, looking back at the horizon, fingers fiddling together. “Had too much anxious energy, I guess.”

“Yeah, I feel that. DC is a helluva different city than LA.” Chase tilts his head, she elaborates. “I’m LA born and bred, but needed to get away for a bit.”

He hums in response. He understands what she’s saying, a city can be overwhelming and suffocating when your entire life is knotted up in it. Histories and ghosts around corners that no longer exist the same way you remember tearing at you each time you pass by. 

Karolina shifts beside him, to face him better, tucking a strand behind her ear and twisting it around her fingers. “Could I- I know this is  _ so _ rude, and you did do that  _ Oprah _ interview, but could I ask? Do you miss it? The ‘ _ good ol’ days _ ’?” 

The orange light from the dawning sun casts shadows on her almost golden hair, and it reminds him of his mother’s for a moment, straight and long and yellow squeezing him in nostalgia. Licking his lips, he thinks about his response. 

People have been asking him how things are different, how he likes  _ the future _ , how he copes. Not many ask if he misses it. The truth is, it’s complicated. Chase misses the people he left behind; Jim, Gabe, Peggy, the rest of the Howlies and their friends back in LA. Misses knowing how the world worked. But they weren’t “the good old days”. Things sucked back then for a lot of reasons that suck less in 2012, and he wouldn’t have things go back even if he could, with one glaring exception. 

He sighs before answering. “No. Not really. The internet is  _ so  _ helpful, and there’s way better food nowadays. I do miss the  _ people; _ my friends, my squad. But not--not how everything was. Things were shitty. And I miss Gert, she’s-- she was gone before I went into the ice, though. So, uh,” he tugs on hair at his nape as Karolina hums sympathetically. He tries to lighten it up, “I miss my friends. And bananas that don’t taste like ass.”

That startles a laugh out her. Good. Chase is tired of people looking sad for him, of looking like  _ he’s  _ a ghost. 

They both start as Karolina’s watch beeps. “Well, I gotta go, but, um, are you going to be here tomorrow? I like having company, we don’t even have to talk.” He nods, and she smiles again and walks away.

Slowly, they get to know each other. Karolina is in DC because she needed to get out of LA and away from her past of famous parents  _ and _ growing up in a cult. After she came out as gay things started to, as she puts it, get really weird as The Church began to fall apart. She needed to clear her head in a new setting, so she moved to dc and helps at a youth centre. Chase is glad she seems to be coping.

Listening and talking to her is reassuring and familiar. Like they’ve known each other their whole lives, close as siblings. She nods and hums when he talks about the Howling Commandos, the war,  _ Gert.  _ Their sunrise chats become one of his favourite parts of the day when he’s able to talk and listen and sit in understanding silence.

  
  
  


Days later, Molly has obviously been waiting for him as she rolls down the car window and smirks at Chase and Karolina walking from the steps. “Could you give me directions to the Smithsonian? I’m looking for a  _ fossil _ .” 

Chase rolls his eyes “Hey Molly. What’s up?”

She eyes Karolina and, judging her to be trustworthy enough not to shoo away, says “got some stuff to talk to you about. Unfortunately, your new friend can’t come along. Maybe next time though?” 

Karolina just smiles and nods, shooting a wave and a “good luck!” over her shoulder as she walks down the street. She knows not to pry, and how to take a hint. 

Molly drives around the city with no decipherable destination. It’s not uncommon, but her hands are tense on the wheel, giving away her anxiety. She eventually talks, telling chase about secret data and helicarriers set to “dispose of threats to freedom” before they’re  _ actually  _ threats in the name of freedom. Ice fills Chase’s veins as he realizes what that means. It’s not any kind of freedom he’d like to know. 

“We have to  _ do something.”  _

Molly looks grimly out the windshield, flexing her fingers in the steering wheel. “That’s why I told you.”

When they arrive at the apartment, something is off. Eiffel, their weird and nosey neighbour smiles at him as she holds her laundry basket and he stumbles getting his keys in the lock. She’s been trying to get him to ask her out for weeks, but he keeps playing the “I’m from the forties and oblivious” card, despite knowing exactly what she’s doing. He’s not ready to jump back into dating, and right now, with music that  _ he _ didn’t leave on drifting from the door and a frightening government plan to take out hostiles before they’re threats, he doesn’t have time or patience for her nonsense. 

“Sorry Eiffel, we’ve got a lot of work to do. Paperwork, you know how it is.”  _ Yes, finally,  _ the key is in the lock and he turns it, but doesn’t open the door yet.

She pouts, probably trying to be cute or endearing, “aw, too bad, I was wondering if  _ you _ could help me with laundry.” Seriously, what is she thinking? Laundry is neither romantic nor sexy, it’s just a bit annoying.

“Ah, maybe next time? Good luck though.” He watches as she heads down the stairs, waiting until she’s gone to open the door.

Molly quirks an eyebrow in question before Chase shakes his head and opens the door slowly. Sitting in the living room is Nick Fury, bleeding and dirty. Chase hears Molly suck in a breath and is about to ask what the  _ hell  _ is going on, he reads the text on the phone screen Fury holds. 

A bullshit verbal conversation about a fake fight with a fake wife proceeds as Fury types how they’re compromised (which really, no  _ shit _ ) and who attacked him. Trained undercover personnel and one lone assassin with a mask and metal arm. No other determinable characteristics. 

Molly tenses beside Chase, but he doesn’t have time to ask what she’s thinking before Fury stands and then falls, glass shattering around him as he’s shot twice through the window from the adjacent roof. Molly rushes to his side to pull him out of range behind the counter and secure the floor as Chase bolts out the window to the fire escape, snagging his shield on the way to pursue the assassin. 

He has to climb two flights and up to the other roof whilst they are already jumping to the next building, and Chase has to push himself unusually hard to catch up. They’re fast, and that sets off alarm bells in Chase’s head. They almost reach the edge of the roof to presumably jump down before Chase instinctively throws his shield at them as hard as he can. The assassin turns, smoothly catching Captain America’s Vibranium shield in a shining silver hand. That’s never happened before.

They’re wearing a mask covering their mouth and goggles, the only feature visible their long greasy hair brushing past broad shoulders and the silver arm. Still, they stare at him and Chase feels a shiver roll down his spine. This is the person who almost took down Nick Fury in broad daylight, but there's something else about them that sets Chase uneasy.

Within that second of pause, Chase and the assassin stare at each other and it seems to stretch out, caught in shock and a pang of familiarity until the assassin tilts their head, throws the shield back at him, and jumps off the roof, disappearing before Chase can get to the edge to follow. 

Getting to the hospital is a bit of a blur, Chase still trying to process what the hell happened with the assassin. The antiseptic smell of the hospital grounds him slightly, and he tries to figure out how to brief molly and Agent Hill about what happened. He stares through the window at the operating room where surgeons work on the Director of SHIELD, mind whirring. Molly links their arms, leaning into his side, and it reminds him just how young she is, how in need of comfort she is despite how grown-up she acts. She’s a kid, a scared kid, and fuck if Chase won’t do his damndest to make sure she feels safe again.

“The assassin had a metal arm and was making me work to keep up. There’s something fishy going on,” he says to the window. Agent hill nods in the reflection. 

“Okay. We’ll have to look into it.” the  _ later _ is unsaid. Her shoulders are tense and brow furrowed, lips pulled into a tight line. 

They stay silent, listening to the heart monitor, watching the surgeons work.

  
  
Fury dies on the operating table. Agent Hill’s face pinches and Molly squeezes Chase’s hand a bit too tight as they walk out of the observation room. As the STRIKE team pulls Chase away, ostensibly to debrief, she whispers  _ meet me back here in two hours _ . It's a weird fucking week


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait! Got very busy. I’ll post more regularly in the new year, once things settle down. (Ch 3 might be up tomorrow but latest would be Friday!) In the meantime, please enjoy Chase and Molly bonding uwu

Chase returns to the hospital from his meeting-cum-interrogation with Alexander Pierce of the World Security Council and a run-in with the STRIKE team a Federal Fugitive. It doesn’t feel as horrible as he thought it would, being labelled a traitor and going on the run. (Someone being assassinated in his apartment is pretty bad though. He’s trying not thinking about it.) He’s having a really fucking bad week. 

Molly is waiting for him in a room across from vending machines, popping bubble gum. She doesn’t bother greeting him. “I know who killed Fury.” 

Chase blinks a few times, and Molly takes his pause as an invite to continue “She’s a ghost; most of the intelligence community doesn’t believe she exists, those that do call her the  _ Winter Soldier. _ She’s credited with over fifty hits over the last six  _ decades _ .”

“And you think she exists?” 

Molly’s expression is pinched, eyes harder than he thinks he’s ever seen when she answers. “I  _ know _ she exists. She trained me.”

“What?”

“When I was in the Red Room, Chase. She...she was the one who trained me most of the time. We sparred, she corrected my stances, taught me how to bandage myself up. She was-Chase, she was the closest thing to family I had. She didn’t help me escape,  _ exactly-” _ She cuts off Chase’s incredulous protest because _ what the fuck. _ “It-Chase, I’ll explain more but right now we have to figure out what’s on  _ this,”  _ she holds up a flashdrive “Fury gave it to before we got out. It has the info we need on it about whatever the hell is going on. Told me not to trust anyone.”

“But you trust  _ me _ ?”

Molly stares up at him, eyes wide and wet, and says firmly “Of course. Let’s go.”

\---

Chase takes his first steadying breath since finding Fury in their apartment as they drive down the highway to an old army camp that might have answers. The swaying motions of the car and slight corrections he makes calm his nerves. Molly props her feet up on the dashboard and grins and waggles her eyebrows at him.

“Soooooo, where did Captain America learn to steal a car?”

“Nazi Germany. And we’re  _ borrowing.” _

“Oh, yeah. Like with our track record as well as the situation we’re in doesn’t imply that this bad boy is gonna get shot up  _ at best _ .  _ And,  _ insurance is a thing, they’ll be fiiiine. Anyway, what’s up with Eiffel?”

“Uhg. please don’t remind me. She’s obviously been trying to get me to ask her out, but I’m-”

“Not interested. Yeah. I could tell, Chase. You aren’t exactly subtle, I’m surprised she’s still trying seeing as you are obviously emotionally unavailable.”

“Yeah. Well. It’s not exactly easy to adjust to seventy years in the future where everyone kinda thought you’re just some comic-book wannabe. Plus, there’s not a lot of people I have shared life experience with, out there. I’m just. I’m not ready yet.”

Molly hums, smirk softened but still pulling at her lips. “Yeah, sure.” 

Chase rolls his eyes. “Whatever, you going to tell me a tragic backstory to how you know this  _ Winter Soldier  _ or not? She’s gotta be what, eighty? Ninety? If she’s been active as long as you say she has.”

He catches Molly’s gaze before she stares out the windshield and swallows. “That’s just it, when she trained me she didn’t look more than twenty-five  _ max. _ Now she probably looks, I dunno, maybe your age.”

“Hey,  _ I’m  _ twenty-five!” 

“Shush! You’re like, ninety, plus you’ve had a rough go! The person you saw on the roof wasn’t elderly. Just listen okay?

“When I was with her, there were times that she’d disappear for months, more than a year one time, and the technicians didn’t say anything, so I thought it was missions. Now that I’m out I think--Chase. I think it was cryogenics. Mindwipes, torture, brainwashing. But I think they froze her, in between. She would come back and not recognize me. It scared me because I was a kid and they were brainwashing me too and I didn’t understand  _ anything.  _ Having the one person I thought of as a-a  _ sister _ not recognize me? That-it fucked me up. She was only with me two weeks or so at a time, maybe a bit more sometimes, and every time she left I was so scared she wouldn’t come back.”

Chase glances at her, and Molly has crossed her arms over her chest and brought her knees up. She looks miserable and Chase hates that he can’t do anything substantial to reassure her. Still, he reaches across the console and places his hand on her shoulder, squeezing. She sighs shakily and grabs his hand, staying silent for a moment and just breathing. 

“When my powers manifested fully, she looked at me and whispered ‘ _ Get out, get out and run, little one. The sun will rise for you. I will not stop you, and one of us will be free. Run! _ ’ She didn’t alert anyone, and I was able to bust out. She saved me.”

Chase just squeezes her hand again. “Shit, Molls. I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks.” 

He sucks in a breath, hoping she doesn’t notice how shaky he is. 

She notices, “Chase? Are you okay? 

He stays silent for a moment. “That-that sunrise thing. It reminded me of Gert. We would say something like it. ‘ _ I’m by your side, ‘till the sun don’t rise.’ _ It was a way of saying ‘I love you’ without, y’know, actually saying it. I guess…” he shakes his head, a vain attempt to clear it of the memories he has of her “I’m just tired Mols, and I miss her. Like, I always miss her, but I miss her more when things turn to shit —and this week has been  _ shitty— _ and I wish you hadn’t been dragged into this mess with me. You don’t deserve this.”

Molly shoots him a look that reminds him of Gert, a ‘Please tell me you aren’t this obtuse’ look. His heart pangs. “Chase. I know my life has been...non-ideal, but I’m okay. And it  _ certainly  _ isn’t your fault. Don’t take this on too. I’m trying to build myself a family just like you are. If anything,  _ I’m  _ sorry that you’ve been dragged back into the fray, I know you want to just build stuff with Nico and Alex and not be a soldier anymore. It looks like the world won’t let you, whether it’s alien invasions or mythic assassins. Let’s clear your name and mine, maybe find the winter soldier, and retire, yeah?” She pats his hand and lets go, reaching to fiddle with the radio.

“Yeah. Let’s do it.”

——

Four hours later, they stand in front of Karolina’s walkup. Molly is flattening her hair uselessly to look like a building  _ didn’t _ blow up on top of them and that they aren’t fugitives and traitors as Chase is suffering a bit of an identity crisis after finding out that he crashed a plane into the arctic for practically  _ no reason _ because HYDRA is  _ still a-fucking-round. _ Zola (the scientist who hurt Gert, who’s capture was the reason she  _ died _ ) had been free to do whatever his evil little nazi heart desired, making someone into a  _ weapon _ , fueling unrest and paranoia throughout the century. It makes his blood boil and his head hurt. 

Molly finally knocks, and Karolina opens the door a crack and looks shocked to see them. 

“We need help,” Chase says, and it feels far away. Karolina ushers them inside, and sits them down at her kitchen table, blustering around making tea. 

They sit in silence as the kettle boils.

Molly breaks first. “Um. Karolina, thanks for having us. Would I be able to shower? I’m a bit, uh.” She gestures to herself because really, her needing a shower is pretty self-evident from the dirt and dust covering both of them. 

Karolina nods and directs her to where she keeps her towels. Molly leaves, and Chase stands and starts sweeping for bugs (again) through Karo’s apartment. He’s just a  _ little _ paranoid.

Finished, he sits with Karolina at the table and sips tea, proceeding to brief her in everything that’s happened in the past forty-eight hours. When he’s done, she simply nods and breathes out a slow “ _ Fuuuuck” _

“Yeah. Pretty much.”

Molly comes back into the kitchen, hair dripping but in clean clothes borrowed from Karo, and nudges Chase as she heads to the couch. “Your turn, bud. Clean up, you’ll feel better. I’m gonna take a quick nap before we figure out what to do.” She says, curling up under a blanket and settling in with a yawn.

Karo lifts her eyebrows and shoos him towards the bathroom “Well? Get on it, Cap, you’re more grime than man right now.”

“Alright,  _ alright! _ I’m going! Jeez, woman, you’re pushy.”

“Please, Molly has you wrapped around her little finger  _ far _ more than I do. But! You can admit you’re a big softie  _ after  _ you stop shedding rubble all over my house.  _ Go.” _ And Chase acquiesces, hearing a muffled “Put your clothes near the door so I can wash them!” through the door.

“So. I’m helping you.” Karolina is sitting casually at the kitchen table, as though ready to catch him once he came out from the bathroom in too-tight sweats and a t-shirt that would be too big for her, but stretches across Chase’s shoulders uncomfortably. “Also, your clothes will be done in about an hour, so try not to stretch my clothes too much until then.” this earns her a flat look. As if he can  _ help _ stretching her clothes. “Hey! I’m just saying, don’t flex or my shirt won’t survive.”

“I’ll do my  _ best _ . Also, you are  _ not _ going into the field with us. You’re a civilian!” 

Karo huffs and crosses her arms, “Oh? And you’re going against high-tech nazis just the two of you? Nah, I’m helping.”

Chase rubs his face, because what is  _ with _ him and befriending stubborn people who are going to endanger themselves by trying to  _ help him. _ It’s not fair. He needs easier, more casual friends who aren’t willing to die for what’s right, or for him. (He refuses to think  _ because I don’t deserve it,  _ as that won’t help right now). “Karo. I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You aren’t asking! I’m offering!”

“It’s dangerous! And you aren’t trained at all! I can’t risk you in this mess.”

“Chase! I can absolutely help without immediately dying. Look,” Karo stands and breaths out slowly and, just as slowly, she begins to glow.

She glows in a kaleidoscope of colours, hovering over the ground and waves of... _ whatever is making her glow _ flow around her. 

“What...the fuck.”

Karolina just shrugs, causing ripples in her glowing rainbows. “Eh. Comes with being an alien.”

Chase flings his arms out and leans back because  _ what the fuck? _ “I thought you said your parents were movie stars in a cult!  _ Nothing  _ was said about aliens! Not that- there’s anything wrong with being non-human or anything, I have alien friends…” What is his life coming to that Chase now knows  _ multiple _ aliens from  _ different _ worlds? The future is bizarre.

“Well, yeah. They were. Movie star cultists, that is. But they were also aliens, which kinda helped with the whole cult thing.” Karolina is frighteningly casual about this and Chase doesn’t have the energy to fight it because really, this is just par for his life at the moment. Why wouldn’t his friend be an alien that was in a cult? Why wouldn’t her parents have been movie stars who were also cultist aliens? Why not? 

He rubs his face, a tried and true tactic for expressing to people (the Howlies, Gert, Molly, Nico, and now  _ Karolina the former cultist alien) _ who he is  _ absolutely _ going to cave to that he is doing so unwilling. He knows he can’t say  _ no _ to the flying rainbow alien he’s friends with, he can damn well make sure she knows he’s put out about it. “Y’know what. This isn’t even the weirdest thing to happen to me. Definitely a runner up for the week, it wins the day. Maybe. Shit.”

“So. Can I help?”

Molly’s head pops up from the back of the couch. “Chase, so help me, if we don’t try to get her to join the Avengers I am disowning you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can y’all tell I don’t like writing action scenes HOWEVER I chose to write an au for an action movies so guess who’s suffering editing my next chapter? (Me. It’s me) please kudos& comment! My tumblr is [findafight](http://findafight.tumblr.com)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a fight, recognition, and a recollection  
> warnings for this chapter: fight scene and dehumanizing language

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for being very very late. I had a number of family emergencies come up in the past month so posting fic has not been my main priority. Hope you enjoy this chapter, as we are now into the ~juicy bits! remember to kudos and comment!

It is surprisingly easy to get Sitwell—a high ranking SHIELD tech who was confirmed as part of Hydra— to tell them the “evil plan”, and  _ of course _ it had to do with the helicarriers and killing people. Figures. Nothing with Hydra is ever simple. 

They have him in the backseat of Karolina’s car beside Molly as they drive, to use him to bypass the biometric scans required to sabotage the operation, and hoping they’ll be able to knock out the systems in time when a hand reaches through the side window and throws Sitwell out of the car. Molly screams “ _ it’s the Soldier!” _ as though Chase and Karolina hadn’t figured it out from the  _ metal hand going through the window. _

Karolina slams the breaks to throw the Soldier off, and the squeal of metal against cement rings as she stands to stare into the car. Chase holds his breath for a moment before they’re rear ended by an armored truck, pushing them towards the soldier who jumps onto the roof. Molly leaps into the front seat, pushing Chase’s head down and kicking Karolina to the side before a series of bullets tear up their headrests. 

Karolina tries to floor it and turn, but the Winter Soldier’s hand smashes through the windscreen and rips the wheel from the consol.  _ Fuck. _ Molly grabs her gun where it had fallen to the floor, shooting up at her, but she’s on the hood of the truck, staring at them behind her goggles and mask

They get slammed into the guardrail, Chase grabbing both Molly and Karo before kicking out the door with just a “hold on” as they skid on his sheild. He loses karo, who glows up and takes cover behind an abandoned car. 

It’s messier than Chase would like, with Hydra using goddammed  _ grenade launchers _ and also just existing in the first place. He gets tossed off the bridge with Molly, causing another crash on the underpass. Chase really wishes he would stop getting thrown off things today.

Karo takes air cover to draw attention from the civilians panicking to get to safety, briefly lighting up the sky blindingly. Chase scrambles to his feet to help Molly try to evac the people involved in the crash, motioning for people to  _ get out of the way _ because the winter soldier is climbing over the rail. 

There’s some sort of creature with  _ a lot _ of teeth snapping behind the Soldier as she lands smoothly on an abandoned car. 

“What is  _ that?”  _ he calls to Molly, because really,  _ what the fuck. _ It looks like a dinosaur, teeth gnashing and tail flicking and fine feathers ruffling under the Soldier’s hand as she stalks forward with all the confidence of a predator hunting small game. Something clicks in the back of his mind about the gait, but Chase doesn’t have time to analyze the walking pattern of someone trying to kill him. 

Molly glares at him as she shoots at the soldier. “Not the time, Chase!” She calls as she leaps at her, eyes glowing, to disarm her.

Molly tosses the soldier’s gun, but not before getting shot, so takes cover and draws the dinosaur away as Chase spars with the Winter Soldier. He loses his knife, almost gets stabbed, and realizes her strength almost matches his. 

Her goggles must have broken earlier, as her eyes are bare this time with only a mask over her mouth that looks more like a muzzle and dark rings of makeup or charcoal around her eyes. Chase doesn’t hold back though, even  _ if _ she’s been conditioned by HYDRA (because that’s who had her, it had to be them. Shit, Molly was with  _ Hydra. _ ) she’s still  _ trying to kill him. _ He slams his shield into her arm before twisting and grabbing her mask to throw her over his shoulder and away from him. Her mask slips off and she rolls, brushes hair back as she stands up and turns to him. 

He recognizes that face. 

He’d know it in the dark and smeared in blood and scowling and laughing and  _ he knows that face. _

It belongs to Gert.

Gert, who was the only one who could get him to shut up with just a look. Gert, who fell off a train seventy years before. Gert, who he had  _ mourned _

_ Fuck. _

The world has stopped. His joints don’t work and he can’t tell if he’s hallucinating from exhaustion, Hydra is messing with him with a clone or something, or if Gert is  _ actually there. _

“ _ Gert?” _

The Winter Soldier’s face remains blank, though she blinks and squints at him through confused. “Who the hell is Gert?”

And that’s it, he’s done. She sounds the same as she had, perhaps rougher but still, unmistakably  _ Gert.  _ He falls to his knees and the STRIKE team swarms him. That was  _ Gert’s voice _ , and Chase has no idea what the fuck he’s going to do. 

He doesn’t pay attention when they cuff him, more agents must have arrived, and heard Molly, Karo, and himself into a van. Chase will be the first to admit his coping skills are not the best, but goddammit. He’s pretty sure his reaction to seeing her again, alive, is justified. 

Karo nudges his shoulder with hers. “What happened out there, man?”

“I--Karo. That was  _ her.” _

“The Soldier?”

“ _ Gert”  _ he can feel his voice crack, and doesn’t know if he can hold it together so as not to give their captors the satisfaction of seeing him cry.

_ “Shit” _

“Even when we had  _ nothing, _ we had each other. She was always there. How did this  _ happen? _ ” the last is whispered, mostly for himself.

Karolina’s attention is grabbed by Molly groaning. “Hey!” she calls to the guards, “can we get her some medical attention? She’ll bleed out!” 

One guard responds by pointing their taser baton at her. And then shocking the other guard. Maria Hill pulls off her helmet and smiles at them. “Let’s get you out of here, yeah?”

\---

Being a weapon of Hydra is not an easy task and requires dedication and preservation, this is why the Asset is frozen and defrosted again and again and again without care of its confusion or pain. The Asset is a tool, tools do not need to know their circumstances. Hydra has maintained the Asset through the decades, creating a ruthless weapon that is a ghost to all but a select few, an invaluable resource with which to shape the course of history. 

Somewhere deep below the wipes, cryofreeze, missions, and conditioning, the Asset has a vague feeling of having long ago been something other than a weapon, and it claws up from time to time, shouting ‘ _ Resist! Rebel! You owe them  _ nothing!  _ YOU ARE YOUR OWN PERSON!’  _ so persistently that the Asset cannot help but listen. Whilst it cannot disobey Hydra directly, the Asset rebels in small, unnoticeable ways.

When the little voice speaks up, often most persistent after a week or two out of cryo and without wipes, the Asset begins to think of herself as  _ herself _ , no longer an  _ it. _ She tells no one, as her handlers knowing she has some sense of almost-personhood (for even she knows she is not a  _ person _ ) would not reflect well and most likely result in more wipes. The Asset knows better than that. The small rebellion is significant to the asset, affirming something adjacent to personhood (the asset is not a person. She knows this well enough that even the tiny voice cannot convince her otherwise. It is a truth she lives with)

The only time she has ever voiced this, her small rebellion--that she can recall through the hazy shadows of memories that drift into her mind after long periods without wipes-- is to a young recruit who she was assigned to train. The Asset had been out of cryo for weeks at a time then, her newest handlers forgetting that not wiping her leads to… not rebellion--nothing so drastic--but resistance, more friction on a usually smooth course. The recruit was a scared girl, not yet a teenager whose long curly hair had been cropped shorter and neater than the Asset’s. Through the months of training, they became fond of each other, so much so that the recruit would whisper to the Asset that they were  _ sisters.  _

Which wasn’t right.

The Asset has no family. It is a weapon, and weapons do not love. Sisters do not spar until they each bleed, or fix stances, or teach how to shoot, or any of the great number of violent things the two did together. The Winter Soldier is unsure how she knows sisters do not do such things, but she does. They are not sisters.

When the time came, though, and the young recruit’s eyes glowed gold while she smashed a technician into the wall like  _ nothing _ , the Asset did not move to stop her leaving. (The Asset, perhaps, whispered  _ run, run, get out of here and be free, see the sunrise! _ though there were no witnesses other than the girl.)

So the Winter Soldier, through her subconscious memories, is not unfamiliar with that clawing voice at the back of her head. She is, however, unsure what to make of the latest development. She recognized the blonde man they arrested but does not know from where. Flashes of him reaching and calling for someone (her?) falling off a train, her body being dragged through snow, being told she will be the new face of Hydra. The Winter Soldier shivers at the memories that  _ cannot be hers _ . She was nothing before she was Hydra’s Asset. It is the only truth she knows and it is the only truth that is. 

She flinches from the tech working on the metal arm before she stills, shaking off the memories. The technician is on the floor, flung by her arm, and makes no move to resume his work. He instead looks towards the door of the cell. 

The commander enters briskly, speaking to no one until he stands in front of her. He asks for a mission report once, twice, slapping her when she does not respond. 

She slowly turns her face to look at him. She does not give a mission report. Instead, she asks “the man on the bridge. Who was he?” 

The room goes silent as every technician stills and turns to stare at the Asset. Her commander (blonde, blue-eyed,  _ wrong) _ leans forward menacingly. “You met him earlier this week on a different assignment.” There is nothing in his eyes. His face, easy to read when directed away from the Asset, is always blank when he speaks to her. She is nothing to him. A tool. A weapon. This is why he is the commander. He reminds her of her role without speaking. 

Still, she must try to get answers, because he is not telling the truth. She  _ knew that man _ . The Asset looks at him through her greasy hair, insisting, “But I knew him” she does not know how to articulate the bounds of ‘ _ know’ _ she means to express. That the man was once part of who she was, wound up in her life as much or more so than the metal arm hydra gave her, though it makes no sense for him to have been. She was did not exist before Hydra.

The commander’s empty eyes somehow harden. He sits on a stool in front of her. “He means nothing. Your work as the fist of Hydra has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century and will do so one more time, for Hydra. Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow, we are going to give it a little push.” 

The Soldier stares at the man who controls her. “But I knew him.” She is desperate to  _ know _ . Her memory is caught on him like a scratched record (how does she know what that  _ is?) _ skipping back to the man on the bridge, saying a name: ‘ _ Gert’.  _

The commander scowls at her and stands upright, no longer looking at her with his lifeless eyes. “Prep her.” he says. A tech fidgets. 

“Been out of cryofreeze too long.”

“Then wipe her and start again.”

The Soldier does not flinch this time when she is pushed her back into the chair (the chair _ the chair  _ **_the chair_ ** ) and her arms are clamped to it. She glares at the commander as a mouthguard is shoved in her mouth and the headpiece is lowered. He is lying. She  _ knew _ him.

When the electricity shoots through her, she only screams. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post rescue, a plan, a fight, emotions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hydra sucks but also so does writing fight scenes what the heckie

Fury looks like shit and, given that the last time Chase had seen him he’d been  _ dead _ , that’s an improvement. Not  _ dead _ but in a coma with a low heart rate, but semantics at this point don’t help their situation. Agent Hill was standing protectively to the side of the bed and nods at them.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” (about the secret mountain bunker or not-dead Fury or the plan to bust his ragtag group out of Hydra custody?) “but we weren’t sure if we could…”

“Trust us?” Chase is trying not to sound indignant. It is very difficult. “I  _ died _ fighting Nazis and you think I’d be on  _ their _ side!?”

“I mean, technically, by the end of the war Hydra weren’t affiliated with Hitler or Germany anymore so they weren’t  _ official _ na-”

Chase cuts Molly off, “they were  _ basically _ the same!” 

Karolina steps in, voice calm but stern “It doesn’t matter now, anyways. What matters  _ right now _ is getting rid of those helicarriers. I assume you two,” she nods to Hill and Fury, “have some sort of plan?”

Fury smiles. “Of course.”

The override chips for the helicarriers he gives them are supposed to make them target each other instead of the millions of innocent people they were supposed to. Which means Chase, Molly, Agent Hill, and Karolina have to get back into SHIELD HQ. Filled with Hydra and allies alike. Great. 

Hill is able to get them in and access to the intercom and Chase pulls a heroic and inspiring speech from sleep deprivation and adrenaline, telling SHIELD agents about Hydra amongst them. The building erupts into anarchy, and Chase figures that’s his cue to leave. He doesn’t really pay attention to the main building of the  Triskelion , just runs full speed towards the helicarriers that are slowly beginning to rise off the ground. 

Karolina takes care of getting the sabotage chip into the first helicarrier and Chase the second relatively easily. Before they can meet up he hears Molly’s voice-panting but strong- crackling over their comms. 

“Backup on the ground needed, there’s a helluva lot more Hydra bastards than we thought, and the Winter sol-ah!-Soldier put a dent in our side.” 

Karolina responds first “I’ll give Chase support to the third heli and be right there.” Chase just nods when he sees her fly up to him and runs. Karolina’s energy was much more suited to shield large amounts of people than his single, tiny shield, and it shows in her ability to use one hand to block shots at Chase and the other to help Molly.

“Hey Cap, last I had eyes on, uh, your friend, she was heading towards number three, so you might have more resistance on this one.” Agent Hill’s voice tells him as he works his way onto the deck of the helicarrier and waves Karolina off.

He sighs, opening a door to a dark stairwell heading down. “Copy. I’ll be on guard.”

“Good luck, Captain Stein”

He gets to the glass domed underbelly of the helicarrier, across the catwalk, and is  _ so fucking close _ to replacing the last data chip when Gert steps in front of him. He can’t keep the desperation out of his voice. “Gert,  _ please.”  _ He doesn’t know what he’s asking her.

“ _ No” _ she spits the word, and the look in her eye is  _ almost _ blank. She does not lunge at him but  _ something _ does, tearing at his suit with claws. It’s the dinosaur from the bridge, he realizes as they topple off the catwalk onto the glass dome below. Teeth and claws digging into his shoulder, the dinosaur lands on top and winds him. It snarls as it stands, looming over him, tongue dripping and tail flicking behind it.

Chase puts his arms over his face, trying to grab hold of its jaws to stop it biting him. “uhg. Get off, c’mon”. It makes a whining noise, and Chase feels the vibrations from gert landing next to the struggle. Suddenly, he releases the dinosaur’s jaws and kicks out, putting it off balance enough to back up and let regain his footing and stand.

Gert shoots at him, finally joining the fray. “Gert, fuckssake! I’m Chase! You’ve known me your whole life! You  _ know me! _ ” He’s scrabbling at the frame of the catwalk to get back up, to put that blasted chip in and save millions of people. Goddamn. 

Gert climbs after him. “No, I  _ don’t!”  _ The desperation in her voice sinks into his bones as he realizes she is trying to convince  _ herself _ of it, not him. 

Gert is still in there. 

She tackles him to the floor, grunting and glaring daggers at him. He scrambles to grab the data chip before her, her metal arm whiring and pushing him into the floor to stop him putting it where it needs to be.

Okay, so maybe she’s far, far down. But she’s still there. She’s still  _ Gert. _

They wrestle, which is very difficult when one is trying to not hurt the other who is very much trying to kill him. Chase loses his shield off the catwalk and through a broken pane of glass, and he has to dislocate Gert’s shoulder to get the chip whispering “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Gert I’msofucking _ sorry” _ as he does so. She looks lost behind greasy bangs and bloody teeth, s;ipping down to the glass dome and her dinosaur. Chase’s heart breaks again before he turns back to scramble to the consol. 

He is finally able to replace the chip, giving Agent Hill control over all three helicarriers. He sighs in relief. Now to just get him and Gert (and the dinosaur that  _ listens to her? _ Super weird day)  _ off of it _ . 

Easier said than done.

Gert shoots him in the leg as her dinosaur tackles him to the ground. He kicks out and it yelps away and Gert screams and punches at him. Chase is able to get on top of her and presses a knee between her shoulders to prevent her from taking the chip out, and comms Hill. 

“I need you to shoot on the helicarriers,  _ now!” _

_ “ _ Cap, you need to  _ get out. _ ”

“No can do. So fire  _ now.” _

A staticy breath. “Yes, sir.”

There is a pause before the ship shudders and things start falling. The helicarriers all firing at each other to prevent them from firing at actual people seemed a lot better of an idea when he wasn’t  _ in one _ . Oops. 

The dinosaur gets trapped under a beam and Gert  _ screeches _ as though she’s the one pinned, scrambling over to it and straining to lift the crossbeam with a dislocated shoulder. Chase can’t just  _ leave them _ as the ship is falling out of the sky. That’s his brainwashed best-friend-slash-love-of-his-life and her dinosaur. So he runs over and helps Gert lift the bar high enough for it to crawl out. Oddly, it tilts its head and seems to  _ smile _ at him before Gert yells incoherently at him and smashes his face to the floor.  _ Goddammit _ .

“Gert,” he says, trying to push her hands away from his face. She gets a few good punches in but her hits aren’t as hard as they were earlier, though he’s not sure if that’s from injury or lack of will. “Gert it’s  _ me, Chase. _ I’m your friend _.  _ Let me help you!”

“ _ NO!”  _ There’s even less force behind her punches, and Chase notices the dinosaur is just snapping its jaw and flicking its tail nervously, not attacking or backing Gert up. Deep down, she  _ must _ be realizing  _ something.  _

“I’m not gonna  _ fight _ you, Gert!”

“Yes you  _ will.  _ I have  _ no friends!” _

_“_ I am, Gert. I’m your _best_ _friend!_ Your name is Gertrude Yorkes,” The dinosaur nudges her shoulder, whines. “We grew up together in Brentwood. In California, by the ocean! Please, Gert, please, _remember me!”_

_ “You’re! My! Mission!”  _ She screams with hair flying about her head and sticking to her sweaty forehead as the helicarrier rocks with explosions and falling debris, a few tears slipping from her eyes. She’s really just sitting on his chest and slapping his collarbones and grasping his shoulders now. Her breaths are coming as gasps and her hands go from his shoulders to hovering shakily around his face. She does not touch his blood-smeared cheeks. “My  _ mission... _ I have to complete my  _ mission...” _

“Oh, Gertie.” She is hurting  _ so much _ , it’s painful to see her struggling against whatever Hydra has put in her head. Chase is exhausted and beat up and  _ shot _ , feeling his consciousness wane, but decides for  _ one last blow.  _ One last try to get Gert back, to free her of whatever Hydra has done to her. He owes her that much.

He takes her hand in his and leans his cheek into it, looking right in her eyes. “Then finish it, cause I’ll be by your side ‘till the sun don’t rise.”

She freezes. Her shaking hand doesn’t move from his cheek, her face horrified as tears form clean streaks down her face.  _ Oh, _ he’s missed her so much.

Chase is about to reach up to touch her cheek when another support beam falls and shatters the metal structure holding the glass they sit on. The three of them plunge into the Potomac River and, as he loses consciousness, Chase feels a tug on his shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> almost there y'all! once again, life kicked my ass and prevented me from doing my once over for this chapter. Renata was beta. There'll be one more chapter (mayyybe two?), to wrap things up. at least for this story, as I have like, actually au stuff for this and not just an alt winter soldier movie. Other runaways will feature in those, which means this is basically an intro fic to "runaways as avengers fusion" I guess??


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could've SWORN I posted this and finished this fic (though not this universe!) up. Sorry pals.

_Gert smiles as she watches Rayisa try to teach Moira to dance a kind of tango, her accent more pronounced as her counting curls into laughter at Moira’s enthusiastic but clumsy attempts and tangled limbs. Jim and Joan are clapping and humming a melody for them to dance to and Gabe is giving Chase a remedial Russian lesson. The crackling of the fire and everyone’s easy smiles gives the illusion that they are simply friends camping in the woods relaxing, instead of the soldiers fighting a war they are. A brief reprieve lets them breathe, but it makes it harder to go back to the struggle._

_She doesn’t notice him leave Gabe, but Chase is plopping down beside her and leaning into her left shoulder, as though he belongs there- like he knows he always has. Gabe is showing Moira “how someone really tangos”, even though Ray clucks and adjusts his position immediately, inciting Jim to snort with laughter, breaking the beat. Everything is warm from the fire and a southern breeze. Part of her doesn’t want it to end, fear clenching in her stomach and cooling her veins that their numbers will drop, as they tend to do in war._

_Gert melts into Chase’s familiar warmth, linking their arms. He’s bigger than she remembers the boy she grew up with and left in LA was, but she’s adjusting. Still runs hot and comfortable and only slightly taller, now she doesn’t have to worry he’ll hack a lung out or get the shit beat out of him in an alley for being a smartass. He might get shot, but so might anyone in the war--including herself. It isn’t a nice thought, but it is steadying in it’s truth. Knowing now, in the midst of war, their odds are even with everyone else’s._

_Despite the temporary comfort of her oldest confidante beside her and the laughter of their friends, Gert feels a wave of homesickness. She wants the days they would sit in her parents’ yard after work, Chase drawing blueprints or trying to make prototypes and her reading anything she could get her hands on. They’d let the California sun dip low and heavy in the sky, drenching them in tangerine twilight until they couldn’t see what they were doing before heading indoors with the scent of orange blossoms on the wind. Things may not have been simpler or easier--it wasn’t for anyone in the ‘30s-- but it was_ familiar _in a way that war should never be._

_The orange of the fire flickers as the others dance lazily in front of it, casting long shadows around camp, and Gert pushes her cheek further onto Chase’s shoulder._

_“What are you thinking so loud about?” he mumbles into her hair. He’s always been good at reading her, even now both having changed so much in the short months they were separated by an ocean and a war._

 _She sighs. “Just. Getting used to you being bigger, I guess.” Chase shifts, tangling their fingers together but not moving away. “And home. I…” she swallows. It’s never been easy for her to open up, and she’s finding it especially difficult tonight. Must be the knowledge of going back to work in the morning. “I miss home.” so much in that sentence is left unsaid for him to interpret. “_ Despite not having one _”, or “_ even if my parents are gone.”, _and maybe_ “Although wherever you are, that’s home.”. _Chase knows these things, even if he didn’t when they were younger and stupider and made assumptions they shouldn’t have._

_She keeps her eyes on Moira, the light of the flames and their reflection in her own glasses making her red hair seem alight as she sways and bobs with Joan’s hands held loosely, enticing her to dance something approximating a waltz. There’s a lump in Gert’s throat and tears prick her eyes inexplicably, as though she’s already lost her tiny family of misfits in war-torn Europe; that everything she ever had was lost and she is just watching a newsreel of her life, seated in a dark theatre and powerless to change the narrative instead of being here and now, watching them dance in front of her. She wants to cry. Instead, she takes slow breaths to match Chase’s. It’s simple, having been worked out between them years ago, and the steady focus is the best way for her to come down from panic._

_He nudges her before squeezing her hand and bringing it up to his lips. She meets his eyes and he smiles, breath ghosting over her knuckles and not yet kissing her. “I miss it too. But y’know, wherever you are? That’s my home. I’m by your side, Gert.”_

_She smiles now too. “‘Till the sun don’t rise?”_

_“‘Till the sun don’t rise.” And Chase kisses the inside of her wrist._

_But._

_Something is_ wrong _._

_Gert doesn’t feel the tickling wetness of Chase’s familiar kiss to the underside of her wrist and looks down to see her hand and wrist are shining metal, the person holding her is not Chase, and he is not kissing her. She is choking him, his hands scabing against unyielding metal. Cold metal fingers pressing into soft flesh, indenting and bruising the neck beneath. She lets go, horrified, arm whining, but already there are more men, white lab coats billowing in an unfelt breeze and heavy guns clicking to load as she is held down. Her breathing is unsteady and choked as her limbs are clamped to bed. A face she recognizes with tiny round glasses, a receding hairline, and unkind smile hovers above her saying “Welcome back, Sergeant Yorkes.”_

_She screams before he can say anything else._

A cool snout nudges the Asset awake, breaking the nightmare and the memories. Because that _must_ be what the dream was before it turned sour. Her memories from _before._ Before hydra, before the cold, before the Winter Soldier. She loved and was loved, looked at like a person and treated as a friend. As though she had _value_ in simply existing. The Asset _Gert_ turns her head into her dinosaur companion’s neck and allows herself the relief of silent tears.

\-----

Chase wakes up to music. He isn’t sure what it is, rock of some sort with drums and guitars and a smooth crooning voice, but it’s nice. He turns his head and sees Karolina sitting in a stiff chair frowning at her phone. 

“Guess I missed my run, huh?”

Karo’s head jerks up, and her frown fades to a smile. “Hey, sleepyhead. You gave us quite the scare there.”

He winces and shrugs. It couldn’t be helped, their worrying. “Sorry. Have you-” Karolina shakes her head.

“We don’t know how you got out of the river. She’s in the wind, Chase. I’m sorry.”

He nods, humming. It’s not surprising, but it is disappointing. “How’s Molly?”

“Fine, a bit worse-for-wear, but nothing she hasn’t handled before. She called some of your L.A. friends, I think they might be...visiting you soon?” There’s a weird twitch in her eyebrows and a nervous inflection to her voice, but really, his “LA friends” _were_ international heroes (as well as tech and fashion pioneers, viking gods, etcetera…) and with the week they've had, he doesn’t blame her nerves being a bit frayed.

“That’s good.” Chase relaxes into the pillows, “mmm, okay. They’ll probably yell at me, and I’ll need your help explaining the whole fucked up situation, but it’ll be nice to see them.”

Karolina sighs and sits in the plastic chair, closing her eyes. Swallowing, she opens them quickly and flicks through her phone. “Okay, now it’s time to _educate you_ on music you missed. First up, a personal favourite and influence upon my younger self, _The Beatles!”_

\------

Molly sits straight backed and blank faced as she stares down senators who think they know what happened and want to blame _her._ There’s a barely scabbed bullet wound in her shoulder and burn marks on her collar bone and yet she’s _here._ Playing politics. Nico _owes her_ so bad. 

“Why haven’t we yet heard from Captain Stein?”

She tucks hair behind both her ears at the same time, and leans closer to the microphone. “Not much else to say. I think the wreck in the potomac made his point quite aptly.”

“Miss Hernandez,” A red-faced senator(? She’s not sure and doesn’t care who’s interrogating her) She rolls her eyes. It’s _Agent,_ but correcting him would be useless. “the amount of damage from the destruction of the helicarriers is unprecedented. Not to mention how this country is supposed to maintain our national security with you and Captain Stein releasing all our intelligence.”

“Hydra was selling you _lies,_ not intelligence.”

“Many of which you had a hand in, hm?” He says it like a gotcha. 

Another senator leans forward, “Many people think, given your record for and against this country, you belong in prison.”

She sighs, and meets his gaze. “You’re not going to put us in jail. You aren’t going to put any of us in a prison. Wanna know why?”

“Please, tell us”

“Because the world _is_ a vulnerable place. And yeah, maybe we do help make it that way, I have red in my ledger, just as much as the rest of you.

“But we’re also the best ones to _defend_ it. So lock us up. Lock all of us up. Nico Minoru, Chase Stein, Alex Wilder, all of us! Do what your egos require to stay intact. You know where to find us.” 

With that, she stands and leaves, head high as reporters snap pictures but part for her to pass all the same. She _hates_ politicians. 

Nico _so_ owes her.

\----- 

Oh, Nico _owes him._ Alex just wanted like, a month? Maybe two? Where none of their friends were involved in any sort of international conspiracy, galactic conflict, or treason. It would be _really nice,_ even though with friends like his it would never be likely. 

The reason Nico owes him for flying across the country is that her ex-girlfriend and his childhood friend is standing in front of him outside of Chase’s hospital room.

“Don’t tell Nico!” Is the first thing he hears Karolina Dean say to him in over five years.

“Uhhh,” Alex is going to blame the jetlag and _not_ shock for his lack of eloquence at Karolina’s unexpected reappearance. (Though actually, shouldn’t he have expected it, from his track record?) “How are you?”

Karolina blinks nervously, a tick she had when they were kids too, and its presence is oddly reassuring. “Fine. I, uh, am friends with Chase. “

“Cool. Sweet. Awesome. Are you going to come back?” Nice. Subtle. Where’s that Wilder strategy and planning now??

She takes a deep breath. “I guess I should. Given we share friends. Nice coincidence. It’s been too long, I’d say. Oh! But check on Chase! I think he’s getting sick of just me for company!” She ushers him into the room, and avoids looking at him the whole time.

Yeah. Nico totally owes him.

\-----

She grabs a pair of sunglasses, and feeling the familiar weight across her nose and ears brings her some semblance of comfort. An oversized hoodie and ill-fitting jeans cover her up, and Gert is confident that she passes as another tired twenty-something in the eyes of passersby, rather than an internationally wanted, hundred-year-old supersoldier assassin. 

So she revels in mundanity and stares at the exhibits before her. Rows of pictures and artifacts from a life once belonging to her. Smiling faces between lists of birthdays, interesting facts, timelines all printed in even font as though they are not precious pieces of someone’s _life_. 

Gert tears her eyes away from the biography of the Dancer from her dream, unable to bear the pressure behind her eyes thinking about her anymore ( _Rayisa Honcharenko, from western Poland but ended up in France, 28 in ‘44, tells stories with her whole body, almost entirely legs, wasn’t with her fami-) ._ She walks through a doorway into a small theatre, with a video of interviews on loop. The Dancer is in it. Older now, but still as graceful as any ballerina. There are others too, all telling fractions of a history.

She watches the loop four times. These people knew her, _loved_ her. They also knew the man on the bridge. Who _knew_ her, even so long after they fell; even when they had been torn apart by time and orders, he knew her.

She needs to get to L.A.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please kudos/comment! and hit up my tumblr which is also findafight (html is being mean sorry lads can't link it) I have such grand plans for this au ooof.


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